TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Q&A with Local Media 2/25
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New head coach Mike Vrabel has already had a busy few weeks here in New England, and he’s now down in Indianapolis getting ready for the upcoming scouting combine.
Vrabel held his press conference earlier this morning, and he sat down for another Q&A session with the local media later in the day. Here’s a full transcript from that session:
On his approach to having the #4 overall pick and whether or not he’s opposed to trading or listening to offers:
“I don’t think anybody could be able to say for certain what they’re going to do right now. People always ask, ‘Who are you guys going to take?’ I’m like, ‘Well, tell us who goes one, two, and three, then I’ll have a better idea to be able to tell you what we may do at four.’ But I think we would always listen and we would want to entertain any offer that somebody had that we felt like could strengthen our football team. So, I mean, to say what that’s going to be right now, I don’t think we would have a great idea of what that would be.”
But you’re open to all possibilities?
“Of course.”
On where he stands when it comes to arm length for tackles:
“Yeah. I mean I think that arm length is good only up until the point to where you use it, right? I think if guys are sitting there and they’re catching or they’re clamping or their hands are outside, they’re not as long as maybe they would be if you punched. So much technique changes now with having seen some of the offensive linemen and probably being with that group a little bit more extensively last season in Cleveland, there’s a lot of independent hand punchers. There’s players that will punch with independent hand and then bring a second one in or some, there’s two-hand punches. So I think the most important thing is how you use whatever length you have. If you’re a long arm player that uses the length, then great, that’s an added plus. If you’re maybe an average length player that doesn’t use the length, that would be difficult. But if you’re using it, then that can be positive.”
On the fact they added Ryan Cowden, and why he was added:
“Well, because I believe in what Ryan can do and the impact that he can make with our organization, with personnel, to help Eliot [Wolf] and that crew, and just try to help us get the right players in here.”
On how he views the hierarchy and who has final say when it comes to making personnel decisions:
“Well, I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the head coach here if I wasn’t comfortable in my impact on the roster. We want to continue to have great conversations with the personnel staff, with me, with Stretch [John Streicher], with coaching. We’re all just trying to find ways to bring the right players in here, whether that’s first part of free agency, middle free agency like we talked about, or the draft, or there’s going to be players who get released that we’ll have to pivot to and have options. So again, we need to strengthen the roster. We understand that. And again, have some really good conversations about how we get there.”
On how important it was to him for Stretch to be a part of things:
“Very important for me. He meant a lot to me. He’s meant a lot to the success that we had in Tennessee. His growth, in this business of NFL football, the connections that he makes with our staff and our players, and they know that he’s an extension of me. And if they need, maybe they don’t have a strong enough connection with me to say something that they certainly will be able to find an avenue with Stretch as a point of contact.”
On if he’s his version of Ernie Adams:
“We’re not big into comparisons. Stretch is probably a little more… He’s got a little bit better sense of humor than Ernie Adams. I think what Ernie did was critical and Stretch is very unique and he’s important to me, and I value him extremely high.”
On given the changes in terms of how differently they’ll be doing things on offense and defense how he feels about the current fit of players on the roster:
“I mean, I think what the roster looks like today is going to be vastly different than what it looks like at the end of August. We got a lot of time. So the fit, the players will determine their role, just like we always say, how hard they work, what they’re willing to do to help us, how many positions that they can play, their versatility. We got a lot of time for that. But if they show up, they’re willing to learn, they’re willing to work hard, be a great teammate, you can find places for guys like that.”
On how difficult it is to find a top-flight receiver and how aggressive they need to be to add someone who can help in that area:
“Well, I think you have to… One, it’s hard. I mean, you usually got to draft them. But then sometimes, based on circumstances, available for trade. I think that we’ll explore every opportunity that we can to add great players that we feel like are the right fit and that can help us. There’s only so many options in free agency and a trade, and the draft. So we’ll explore all three of those. ”
On the fact he talked about meeting with some of the defensive linemen, and if there’s anyone else in the draft, specific positions, that have jumped out at him:
“Well, I think that there’s some depth at offensive line as we headed into this process of the draft meetings with the college scouts, which I enjoyed watching through those players and seeing some of the conversations that they had and some of the affinity that they had for players on the offensive line as well. So. we’ll get into that when those guys get here and we’ll meet with them.”
“Again, this is early on in the this, but it’s an important step here with the interviews and some of these guys just getting to know them and figuring out what’s the next step. Do we go visit them? Do our coaches Zoom with them? Do we go to the Pro Day? All those different exposures. So I think this is just a good step.”
On the fact in Tennessee it seemed like there was very little blitzing, a lot of four-man rushes, and after seeing the Super Bowl, how important it is to be able to get pressure rushing only four:
“Well, I think that you have to pick and choose your spots. And again, it’s not about the blitz, it’s about the blitzer. It’s the player that’s blitzing. And so if we have an opportunity to get a player on a running back and they can beat the running back as they’re rushing, then we want to do that as much as we can. But if you don’t have a player that’s going to beat the running back, then it doesn’t really make sense getting that match up. And we’ll focus on the pass rushers that we have. It’s about picking and choosing your spots. But if you can affect the quarterback with playing a four-man rush and playing some zone or being able to get some vision on the quarterback, I think that the ball production will increase or you have to take guys out of coverage to try to affect the quarterback. There’s always issues with that as well. We want to be balanced and do what our players probably can execute the best.”
On sitting there as a first-year coach 2018 and everything that’s happened since then, what areas stand out in terms of where he’s grown as a coach:
“Probably just a little bit more comfortable, I think, confident in what we want to do and how we got there, making it all about the player, making a connection with them, finding out what they need, how can I help you reach your potential? Just understanding how important honesty is and my ability to protect the football team and protect the Patriots and making sure that everybody’s living up to that standard.”
On when he talks about strengthening the roster and exploring all avenues, what he sees as the greatest challenges ahead this offseason:
“I mean, we’re not afraid of anything. We just have to have options. You can’t just say, ‘Give me one, we’re going to get this guy’ because you’re not going to bat a thousand. Everybody else is trying to go for the same player. Having a really detailed plan and approach is probably the only thing that I would make sure that we are doing, which I believe we are. And then being able to quickly pivot on to the next option and understand where that line is. We’re just not going to sign players just to sign them. But making sure that we have a plan in place for, ‘Okay, if it’s not this player, then is it this player, and then it’s this player.’ And then that’s what I want to make sure that we do.”
On what they want to be offensively, if it’s vital that they have a number one receiver:
“I think everybody wants to have it. We’ve won games certain ways in the past. Again, what’s ideal? I’m not going to sit here and tell you we can’t do something. But the better players you have, the easier it is to win in this league. That’s the bottom line. And so if not, then we’ll find other ways to win. I mentioned this: Josh has won games in this league as a coordinator without Tom Brady. When I played against him, he had plans for each quarterback. And so I use that as an example. Terrell [Williams] has been part of defenses that, probably on paper, didn’t stack up to the offenses that they were going against. But we found, and there was a plan, the players understood it. So again, we’ll be ready to make sure that our players are prepared every possible way. If we find a ‘one’ receiver, they’re just not walking around here – let me know if they are – we’ll get them. But we’re going to do everything that we can.”
On the fact he used to watch the draft as a coach and see what player they were replacing, and how important it is for the rest of the roster to understand that level of competition:
“I think that that’s okay to explain. I would explain that to the player. When people say, ‘NFL is a business,’ of course, we’re in professional football to provide for our families. We want to win a championship, clearly. But we all do this to provide for our families. Let’s be as transparent as possible. And so what you explain to the players of the business of the National Football League is that every day that Eliot and I and Ryan and everybody in this building has come to work, in theory, we’re trying to find younger, cheaper, better players. That’s the goal. And what the veteran player’s job is to not let that happen and to say, ‘You can’t win without me. You have to have me, a sixth or seventh year player, at this compensation.’ And that’s the competition that goes on. I knew that. And it’s okay to explain that to the player.”
“That’s not a negative thing. And so they have free agency, and they’ve earned that right, and they’ve bargained for that. And so they play really well for us. They either earn another contract from us, or they go and they get to explore free agency, and they get another contract and they get to take care of their family. And so we all have to be very honest and upfront and open about that.”
On what he finds is the most useful aspect of the combine:
“Just the interviews. The workout is going to be on the next day. The drills haven’t changed in 30 years, so the same drills. I just want to talk to these guys and get to know them briefly, see how they act in this setting. That’s important.”
On if he tries to rattle guys and if that’s part of it:
“I mean, it can kind of go in any different direction. Really, we want to just see them in their authentic self and be genuine and honest. Let’s see how they respond and pivot in different questions coming from different ways.”
On his internal evaluation of the roster and his thoughts specifically to Mike Onwenu and ideally what role he fits:
“I’m not going to get into predictions or where that’s going to be schématically. I’ve enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had. I think he wants to be coached. I think he wants to improve on the performance last year. I think there’s a lot there for us to improve, I think, in a technique standpoint. Again, I’m just excited about the conversations that we’ve had. It sounds like he wants to be a part of this thing and help us, and we’re excited to be able to help him.”
On with his roster-building philosophy, if he would say the priority is to make sure that the scheme is tailored to some of the key players, or if he’s trying to bring in guys that are going to fit his vision for the offense and defense:
“I mean, I think that it’s got to all come together. If you’re paying a premium, I think it’s got to be the right fit. We’ve never … I’ve never done it and been like, ‘Oh, we don’t have that scheme.’ You can go back, and we’ve played a lot of different things, and we’ve thrown it, we’ve run it outside zone, different runs, defense, we played a three-man front, four-man, we’ve played cover two, we played man when we had to, we played … we’ve done a lot. And I think that that’s just the flexibility that you have to have in this league to say, ‘Well, he doesn’t fit our scheme.’ Does he play hard? Is he a good teammate? Does he show up on time? Does he care? Does he study? We’ll find a place for him.”
On when it comes to free agency, how they can make the team an attractive destination for some of the top-of-the-market guys besides money:
“I went to Houston my first time in coaching in the NFL, and I was working for Bill O’Brien, and I said, well, they had this field that was in trays, six foot by 6 foot, and it was grass. And I said, ‘Why do you guys have grass in the dome?’ And he said, ‘Well, we think it’d be good for free agents.’ I said, ‘The only thing free agents care about is green and it’s not grass.”
“That’s a good place to start. You got to be able to pay them accordingly to the market and what somebody else is willing to pay them. I think you talk about our program and what we want to do and the people that we have in our building and the vision that we have for it and how we’re going to use them. Players that we’ve developed in the past, I think a great thing is testimonial. ‘Here’s what we’ve done. Here’s what we will do. Here’s where we see you fitting in. If that works for you, then let’s make it happen if it’s good for both sides.'”
“Thanks, guys.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcription was done using the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. Please let me know of any errors in the comments below.)
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